Post-Week 2 College Football Top 25

Week 2 was quite a bit more active than week 1, with a handful of top 25 teams losing and others looking very unimpressive. 4 of my top 20 teams lost, and there's a decent amount of shakeups in this week's top 25. We're entering the part of the season where there's the most movement in the rankings, as teams are playing games against meaningful opposition, yet we're still early in the season so there's a lot left to be learned about the teams. The number in parenthesis next to each team indicates their ranking last week.

1. Clemson (1)
2. Alabama (2)
3. Georgia (3)
4. LSU (4)

Clemson, Alabama and Georgia's ratings remain essentially unchanged as all performed very close to my projected spread. The interesting team here is LSU- while they remain #4, the gap between them and Georgia has disappeared to essentially zero. They've also opened up a decent amount of space between them and the rest of the top 10, and I have them as at least 6 point favorites in every remaining game except Alabama.

5. Ohio State (7)
6. UCF (6)
7. Oregon (17)
8. Wisconsin (13)
9. Oklahoma (8)

Ohio State moves up after their big win over Cincinnati, and is at least a 3 point favorite in every remaining game- although a tricky road game at Indiana is up this week. The game of the year in the Big Ten could end up being Wisconsin @ Ohio State, it's the only game I have the Badgers as underdogs in. Oregon clobbered Nevada and moves up quite a bit on it- they rose a similar amount in S&P+ and Sagarin.

10. Texas (5)
11. Texas A&M (10)
12. Auburn (9)
13. Iowa (12)
14. Mississippi State (16)

Texas falls a bit after their loss to LSU, and while they're favorites in all remaining games except Oklahoma, that includes 6 games where they're only single digit favorites. Texas A&M's rating is essentially unchanged after the loss to Clemson, and their murderer's row of a schedule continues in two weeks when they host Auburn.

15. Notre Dame (15)
16. Michigan State (22)
17. Oklahoma State (19)
18. Florida (21)
19. Michigan (14)
20. Penn State (24)

Michigan State demolished Central Michigan and is a little worse than 50/50 to go into their clash with Ohio State 5-0. Oklahoma State is getting a lot more love here than they are in the polls, and are only 3 or 4 points worse than the top two teams in the conference. Michigan falls quite a bit after their near escape against Army, and is 6.5 point underdogs in their big trip to Wisconsin in two weeks.

21. Missouri (20)
22. Utah (23)
23. Washington (11)
24. Appalachian State (20)
25. USC (35)

Washington falls quite a bit after their loss to Cal, and Oregon is now in a tier of their own in the Pac-12 after starting the season roughly tied with Washington. The other big mover here is USC, who was very impressive in their demolition of Stanford. There's a lot of variance in their season outcomes as they have no automatic wins on the schedule, and a brutal slate coming up including trips to Washington and Notre Dame.

Missed the Cut: Maryland, Kentucky, Minnesota, Washington State, Virginia, Boise State, Texas Tech, Kansas State, Wake Forest, Utah State

My model's spreads for big week 3 games (consensus Vegas line in parenthesis):
Iowa -5.5 (-1.5) @ Iowa State
Stanford @ UCF -14.5 (NL)
Ohio State -8.5 (-15) @ Indiana
USC -4 (-4.5) @ BYU
Clemson -23.5 (-27.5) @ Syracuse
Arizona State @ Michigan State -10.5 (-13.5)
Alabama -21 (-25.5) @ South Carolina
Pittsburgh @ Penn State -10.5 (-17)